Rip 2016: Pull It Out From Inside

face the thing before
I do the thing
so when I imagine the thing
I know what color its eyes
where
it is ticklish
what makes it cry
the spots it is shy
the cracks
where bravery hides
so that when I need it

I can keep it

pull it out from inside

In today’s 10km final, she was able to pull out a new personal best time to finish 17th overall in a new Greek national record – 31:36.16. The race was very epic in that not only a new world record was set by gold medalist Almaz Ayana in 29:17.45, but there were also 8 national records reset (including Kenya, USA, and Greece), 18 new personal bests, and 5 new seasonal bests in the 35 woman field. While the new personal best was a perk for Pappas, it was clear by the tears in her eyes before the race that just being on that starting line at the Olympics was probably the highlight of the Games for her.

She wrote this on Twitter after the race:

personal best
national record
17th in the world:

big stage
big swing
now you’re an Olympian
big thing

Nikki Okwelogu also got some great international experience this morning. Okwelogu finished 14th in her qualification group in the women’s shot put with a distance of 16.67 meters, her only legal throw of the competition. She would have needed a distance better than 17.76 meters to advance to the finals, which was well within her capability as her personal best is 17.91 meters. But given how much she has improved since she has stepped on the Harvard campus, we expect to see more of her in future world championships in the future.

Mext Ivy action will be on Monday.

photo by Alexi Pappas

This entry was posted on Friday, August 12th, 2016 at 7:53 pm. It is filed under Olympics, Spotlight.
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